FSU To Honor 2009-10 "Bulldogs Of The Year"

Nov 30, 2010

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University Athletics
Department will honor its 2009-10 recipients of the Dean Davenport
“Bulldog of the Year” Award throughout this Friday's
(Dec. 3) Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) home contest
versus Michigan State at the Ewigleben Ice Arena.

The puck drops at 7:05 p.m. (ET) and the three honorees will be
recognized during various timeouts in the contest.

FSU's 2009-10 recipients of the prestigious award included men's
basketball player Justin Keenan (Grand
Rapids/Ottawa Hills) along with Tina Muir (St.
Albans, U.K.) of the women's track/cross country program and
Eric Lilleboe (Okemos/Lansing Catholic Central) of
the men's golf team. Muir will not be in attendance on Friday
as she will be representing FSU in this weekend's NCAA-II National
Cross Country Championships on Saturday (Dec. 4) in Louisville,
Ky.

The award winners were selected by a FSU Athletics Department
committee. All three were first-time recipients of the
prestigious award.

The Dean Davenport “Bulldog of the Year” Award,
which was reinstated in the 2002-03 season following a seven-year
absence, is presented annually to the most outstanding Ferris State
male and female student-athlete. Award criteria consists of strong
athletic achievements (must be a letterwinner and achieve
outstanding athletic accomplishment), strong individual character
and academic achievement.

The award was renamed in honor of former Ferris State Athletics
Director Dean Davenport, who served in the position from 1979-93.
During his tenure at Ferris, Davenport was instrumental in the
planning of the FSU Sports Complex, the growth of women's
intercollegiate athletics, the emergence of Ferris' NCAA Division I
men's ice hockey program and the development of the athletics
scholarship program. He also led the athletics department to 14
consecutive Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC)
President's Cup Championships. Davenport founded the "Bulldog of
the Year", "Pete Peterson Pride" and "Jimmy Swears Courage" Awards
at Ferris State.

Keenan was tabbed as the men's basketball squad's
Most Valuable Player Award recipient for the third consecutive
season in 2009-10. He became the school's first-ever men's
basketball All-America pick at the Division II level and the first
Bulldog player in 36 years to claim All-America accolades at any
level last season. The 2009-10 State Farm® Coaches'
All-America First Team selection was also honored last year as the
winner of the prestigious Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference (GLIAC) Player of the Year Award for the 2009-10 season,
becoming the first Bulldog men's basketball player in 20 years to
attain the recognition.

A consensus All-America honoree and two-time first team All-GLIAC
recipient, Keenan averaged a league-leading 21.1 points per game in
22 conference regular-season contests last season and held a 20.1
points per game average for all games. Additionally, his 465
points in league games finished only six shy of matching the
league's single-season scoring record of 471 points set by Saginaw
Valley State's Michael Williams in the 1993-94 season.

The 6-6 Keenan also broke two GLIAC single-season records with his
176 made free throws and 253 total attempts in league
regular-season play last season while becoming the school's
all-time leader in career made free throws (562) along with topping
his own single-season record with 215 makes in all games at the
charity stripe. He shattered the previous league records of
132 free throws made and 196 attempts.

Lilleboe, a 2009-10 Division II Men's Golf PING
All-America First-Team honoree, paced the 24th-tying ranked
Bulldogs with a career single-season best 73.00 stroke average
(2,409 total strokes) last season in 33 rounds. The two-time
(2008-09 and 2009-10) PING All-Midwest Region pick was also
honored as the GLIAC Men's Golf "Athlete of the Year" for the
2009-10 season. Last campaign, Lilleboe compiled 11 top
20-place finishes with seven being among the top five
placings. He was also recognized as the GLIAC Men's Golf
Athlete of the Week four times (Sept. 15, 22, 29 and Oct.
7) in the 2009-10 season. A three-time (2007-08, 2008-09
and 2009-10) All-GLIAC First-Team performer, Lilleboe attained the
GLIAC Men's Golf "Athlete of the Year" in the 2007-08
season.

Lilleboe claimed team Most Valuable Player Award laurels last
season after sharing the honor with Kurt Valley in 2008-09 and
being the sole recipient in the 2007-08 campaign. He
concluded his four-year (2006-10) career at Ferris State averaging
73.67 strokes a round (7,588 total strokes) in 103
rounds. Lilleboe accumulated 29 top 10-place
performances for his career, highlighted by 18 among the top-five
finishers.

Finally, Muir capped off a stellar cross
country season in 2009 by being named to the United States Track
and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II
All-America Team following her performance in the 2009 NCAA-II
National Championships (Nov. 21) in Evansville, Ind., where she
claimed All-America accolades for the second consecutive campaign
with a second-straight 12th-place performance in helping the
Bulldogs run to a 11th-place team finish while tying for the
second-highest finish in school history. Muir led the Bulldogs at
the national championships by completing the 6K course in a time of
21:11.0 among 184 runners in the field.

Muir, who was last year's NCAA-II Midwest Regional Cross Country
Athlete of the Year by virtue of her regional individual
championship performance, won all five of her races last season
prior to the national championships and was also selected as the
GLIAC Runner of the Year after winning the conference title.
Twice last fall, she also attained the GLIAC Runner of the Week
honor.

A two-time cross country All-American, Muir also earned the
prestigious GLIAC Commissioner's Award for the 2009 fall semester
and was a league all-academic team selection in both cross country
along with track and field. She made her second-straight
appearance at the national indoor track and field championships
last winter where she came up just short of earning All-America
kudos in the women's 5,000 meters with a 12th-place overall
(17:28.90) performance.

Keenan's selection marks the sixth time a Bulldog men's basketball
player has been honored as a winner of the "Bulldog of the Year"
Award while Muir is only the sixth women's track and field/cross
country participant to claim the honor. Meanwhile, Lilleboe is the
first-ever Ferris men's golf student-athlete to earn the
recognition.

This past year also represented the first time in school history
two male individuals have shared the "Bulldog of the Year"
honor. Prior to last season, the only previous times three
student-athletes were honored for this award were in the 1982-83,
1986-87, 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, with two female
student-athletes being recognized all four times. Bruce Faccio
(football), Monta Ware (women's basketball) and Linda Spicer
(women's volleyball) were 1982-83 award winners while Brad Morris
(wrestling), Patty Theis (women's volleyball) and Karen Kramer
(women's basketball) were the award recipients for the 1986-87
season. In 2006-07, Rachel Folcik (women's basketall) was joined by
Mike Klobucher (football) and Kristie Smilanich (women's soccer) as
award honorees. The 2007-08 recipients included Folcik, Jake Visser
(football) and Becky Hoffman (women's golf).

The other male student-athlete nominees for the 2009-10 Dean
Davenport Bulldog of the Year Award were Jack Swan
(Milwaukee, Wis./Arrowhead) in tennis and Blair
Riley (Kamloops, British Columbia) in ice
hockey. The other female student-athlete nominee was
tennis' Amy Ingle (Battle
Creek/Hastings).